Google Calendar

• Google support page: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/7638168

You can set up your calendar to know whether you work from 8am to 4pm, 9am to 5pm, take a routine lunch break, etc. If you work a hybrid schedule, spending some days in the office and some working from home, you can also set up your calendar to reflect that.

On a computer (you cannot access these settings on a mobile device), these options are found in Settings, which can be accessed from the gear cog near the top right of your screen.

You can either scroll down to the "Working hours & location" section, or use the quick link in the menu on the left.

• Please note: At Drew, you will see a Location and Floor setting that you cannot change. We do not use these features.
• If you do not wish to use either the working hours or location features, you can disable one or both by unchecking the appropriate box(es).
• To block off a lunch hour, you can split your working hours for each day using the plus sign for that day; see an example below. You cannot, however, set different working locations for each day (as of this writing).
  

You can also set your calendar to show when you are out of office (such as when you go on vacation). When you create an event, either by clicking Create or clicking on the right day in your calendar, Out of Office is one of the options for the type of event. You can set the start and end dates, make the event all day, and ask your calendar to automatically decline meetings. You can even edit the message that is sent when your calendar declines a meeting on your behalf.

See Google's documentation here, and also check their instructions for setting an out of office reply on your email.

• Google support page: Respond to event invitations

In addition to being able to say Yes or No to an event invitation, you can say Maybe. Please use this option sparingly, as it can be taxing on an event organizer.

Google responded to a need for hybrid work environments by adding the option to indicate on an event response whether you will join a meeting in the meeting room, or virtually. In July 2021, this option started appearing in Google calendar. At the end of November 2021, the option will also begin appearing in the email invitations.

• Google support page: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/190998?hl=en

If you ever find a need to offer time blocks when you are available to meet with people, appointment slots may meet your need. One of the most popular uses for appointment slots are professors offering the option to reserve a time slot during office hours.

Things to note:

• When you create appointment slots, you are set to busy for the duration of the appointment slot block(s).
• Anyone you add as a guest to the appointment slot is invited to all of the appointments that get reserved. Their calendar will also show them as busy.
• Those you want to reserve a time should follow the link to the appointment page for your calendar.

If you want to consistently offer a time for drop-in appointments, you can create recurring appointment blocks and share the calendar link - either with those you want to offer appointments to, or as part of your signature if that makes sense for you.

• Google support page: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/11608416

Google is beginning to offer something they refer to as appointment schedules. These schedules will be available in your Drew account, and limited other Google Workspace editions (learn more at the Google support page).

Right now, you can use appointment schedules or appointment slots, but not both at the same time. Google lays out the differences as well as how to switch back to slots in their support article.

Features:

• When someone opens your appointment schedule link, they will see a "booking page" that is automatically updated to remove any available appointments when you have had to schedule a different appointment.
• You can share the appointment schedule link with non-Google accounts.
• You can add cushions of time between booked appointments.
• You can require some information be filled out at the time an appointment is booked (in our example, we added a customer field asking for favorite food!)
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What does not work:

• You cannot add colleagues to appointments automatically (for this, switch back to appointment slots for now).